The Twelve Dancing Princesses
by Sakon76
Summary: When Ahiru's class, including Ahiru herself, fall under the spell of a heart shard, Fakir has to save them. Spoilers for Chapter of the Egg.


_Once upon a time, there were twelve princesses, each more beautiful than the last, who lived in a white castle. Each night they retired into their rooms to go to sleep, but every morning when the servants came to wake them, the princesses were exhausted, their dancing shoes worn to rags. Their father the king offered a reward to any prince who could solve the mystery: the hand in marriage of whichever princess he chose. Many princes came to attempt to solve the mystery. But at night the princes disappeared, and none were ever seen again._

**The Twelve Dancing Princesses**  
by K. Stonham  
first released 9th July 2006

Glancing in through the open door, Fakir eyed the beginners class in mild distaste; they were most of them silly little girls and he had neither time nor use for silly little girls. There was one who was different, he acknowledged, but even she was acting like the rest this morning, all of them tired and yawning and barely able to stretch properly.

It was irritating their teacher, he noted, watching Neko-sensei's fur begin to bristle and stand on end. Any second now the lecture on dancers needing proper rest, NOT hours spent giggling and gossiping instead of sleeping at night, would begin, followed by the threat of marriage, and by then the girls would be wide awake in horror and energetic enough for the rest of the day, or at least their class.

With that thought to buoy him, Fakir turned away to go to his own first class.

* * *

Ahiru yawned hugely and thought longingly of her bed, of going back to the dorm and crawling into it, her own little nest, and falling asleep...

"Oh, Ahiru's so cute when she's sleepy," Lilie said, patting her on the head. She put her arm around Ahiru and cuddled her. "When you fell asleep at the barre, it was so adorable! Poor Ahiru, though, not getting enough sleep."

"You weren't any better," Pique scolded Lilie.

"I don't know why I'm so tired," Ahiru said, trying to concentrate. "I didn't go to bed late..."

"Oh, you must have had horrible nightmares keeping you awake!" Lilie squealed. "Next time, you must come to me and I'll keep you safe! We can tell each other scary stories all night."

"How will that keep her from getting nightmares?" Pique asked.

It was true, Ahiru thought, her mind feeling muddled. She'd gone to bed at the normal time. She hadn't snuck out in the middle of the night to return one of Mytho's heart shards. And if she'd had dreams, she didn't remember them. So why was she so tired?

Maybe it's Drosselmeyer doing something, she thought in irritation.

* * *

Somewhere else, an old man with wild brown eyes rocked in his chair, his grin wide enough to devour the world. "Oh, you're getting better at this, Ahiru-chan!" he cackled, watching her image on the clockwork gear before himself. He stroked his chin with one white-gloved hand. "Now, as for what happens next..."

* * *

Head dragging, barely able to keep her eyes open after the long day at school (she'd nearly fallen asleep twice more, only the jerk of her head as it fell forward keeping her awake), Ahiru trudged back into her dorm with most of the members of her dance class, all of them looking almost as tired as she felt. She yawned, and never noticed that her pendant, as she passed the fountain between the two dormitories, gave off the faintest red gleam.

Across the way, watching the exhausted gaggle of girls make their way, seemingly drained of all their usual energy, back into the girls' dorm, Fakir narrowed his eyes.

* * *

It was the late reaches of the night when he first saw activity from where he'd concealed himself in the shadows. Fakir spared a glance upward toward the suite he shared with Mytho. He half-expected to see a pale face peering out of the window, but the room was dark. His roommate had looked curiously at him as he'd donned dark clothing and his sword, but not asked, which was just as well. Hopefully Mytho had gone to sleep.

Girls, all of them from the beginners class, crept out of their dorm, muted in their behavior. Ahiru was the last among them as they gathered at the fountain.

As the belltower pealed midnight in the distance, the fountain began to glow a gentle red, and shifted aside with the softest of scraping noises. Silently the girls filed beneath, going down a clockwise staircase. Ahiru went in last, and as she disappeared, the fountain began to slide back. Fakir cursed and ran for it, barely making it into the opening before it snapped shut over his head and plunged him into darkness.

He stood, one hand on the wall, breathing hard. In this darkness, he could not use his eyes. But below him were the sounds of soft footsteps, going around and around and further down. Straightening, he kept his hand on the wall and followed.

It seemed like forever before the staircase ended and turned into soft, level ground. There was a door in the wall--he'd heard it shut--and Fakir opened it softly.

Outside the stairwell was a wood where the trees were made of silver. Soft starlight gleamed in their branches. And just at the edge of his vision, a red braid was disappearing into the distance. Quick on his heels, Fakir followed her.

The silver wood led into a gold one, then one where the branches were spangled with diamonds, then finally to the shore of a lake where a dozen small boats, crafted of ivory, waited. Each girl got into one. Fakir chose the last, with Ahiru sitting in it. "Ahiru," he whispered, aware of his voice carrying across the water. "Ahiru!" But her eyes were blind and her ears were deaf and when he shook her he got no response. Only the soft glow of her pendant gave him hope. And so he fell silent as they crossed the lake.

At the far edge of the black lake stood a castle, as ivory and gilded as the boats. It was grandly lit as though for a great ball, and as each boat landed, the girl within got out and stepped elegantly toward the enchanted structure. He followed them to a ballroom where music played and a dozen partners waited for the girls.

Each had Mytho's face and glowed the faintest ruby. They took the girls and led them in identical dances, and watching the girls dance with these heart shards, Fakir found it nigh-impossible to believe they were the beginner class. Now they danced elegantly, with grace and experience and their hearts in each step. Each face gleamed with pride, with happiness, with the freedom that the true realization of dance could bring. They were different girls entirely.

And all through the night, as he watched from behind the draperies, they never once stopped dancing. He was half-dozing when he heard distant bells chime six, and as one the girls stopped their dancing and left the princes to return to the world above. Fakir stopped to look back as he followed them, to see all the Mythos combine into one and bow, with a soft "Thank you for the dance, princesses."

He rode in Ahiru's boat again and followed the unseeing girls through the diamond wood and the gold wood and the silver wood. As they went through the door into the stairwell, he broke off a small branch from one of the trees. Then he turned and hurried up the stairs, not wanting to become trapped in this underworld for the day.

The girls went to their dorm and he to his, where Mytho woke when he came in and asked him sleepily. "Fakir?"

"Go back to sleep," Fakir said quietly, placing the silver branch into the vase on the table. "It's not time to get up yet."

* * *

A bare hour of sleep later, Fakir stumbled down the stairs and looked across the way, searching for Ahiru.

"Fakir?" Mytho, by his side, asked.

She wasn't there.

"It's nothing," Fakir said. "Shall we go to class?"

He found her that afternoon, napping on the grass. She mumbled something incoherent and turned on her side as he sat down by her. He smirked and pulled out the silver twig, tickling her nose with it. She twitched and woke up. "Fakir?" she asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she looked up at him.

"You've got grass in your hair," he informed her. She started picking it out. He watched her. "Do you remember where you went last night?" he asked.

"Eh? Went?" Her hands stilled and she looked up at him.

"Last night at midnight you and the rest of the beginners class went out to the fountain and down the staircase beneath it," he told her. "There were woods, and a lake, and a castle where you danced all night with one of Mytho's heart shards."

"Eh? But I don't remember--"

He presented her with the silver sprig. "I followed you," he said. "I took this from one of the trees in the wood."

She accepted the sprig, touching one of the soft silver leaves with one finger. She looked up at him, her eyes troubled. "But if it was one of Mytho's heart shards," she asked, "why didn't I transform into Princess Tutu?"

He had no answer.

* * *

That night, he crept out again. Mytho made no move to follow him but simply asked "Where are you going, Fakir?"

"I'll be back in the morning," Fakir evaded.

"Is it to do with Princess Tutu?" Mytho asked. "Have you found one of the shards of my heart?"

Fakir looked at him, at this Mytho who was slowly changing, shard by shard, into someone he didn't know. But no matter who Mytho became, he was still a prince and Fakir was still his knight. "I hope so," Fakir said, and let himself out.

The girls came silently to the fountain at midnight again. Ahiru, he saw, was last, clutching a silver twig in her hand. He followed her down and she squeaked as the fountain sealed itself above them.

"Be quiet!" Fakir hissed, though he didn't know why. It wasn't as though the other girls paid attention to them. "Keep your hand on the wall. Go down the stairs."

"O-okay." He stumbled and he caught her instinctively.

"Idiot," Fakir hissed. "It's dark in here. Be more careful."

"Right," she said, and went down the stairs before him. He could hear her breathing in the dark and found it comforting. The dark wasn't so oppressive when it was shared.

When they reached the bottom, Ahiru yawned as he opened the door. "I'm just so tired," she said, and walked through into the silver wood.

"Ahiru?" he asked as she suddenly picked up her feet and began to run after the other girls. "Ahiru!" He caught her by the shoulders and spun her around.

Biting back a curse of shock, Fakir dropped his hands and she turned and ran after the others again. He followed, wondering what to do now.

Her eyes were as blank as the night before.

* * *

That night, he broke off a branch of a tree in the golden wood.

* * *

Feeling wretched himself and irritable from the lack of sleep, Fakir found Ahiru napping on the lawn again the next afternoon. He wished he could nap himself, but to do so would lump him in the same group with her, and there was no way he was going to do that.

"Hey." He poked her shoulder with the twig.

She woke up and rubbed her eyes. "What time is it?" she asked. "Oh, Fakir." She knew what he wanted to talk about. "I'm sorry, I fell asleep at the bottom of the stairs..."

"I'm not mad at you. Neko-sensei is."

"He's mad at the whole class today," Ahiru muttered.

"You deserve it," Fakir replied. He gave her the new branch. "This is from further in. Maybe it'll help you stay awake longer."

"Ah, thank you, Fakir," she said. She looked up at him, then frowned. "You look like you didn't get enough sleep either. Maybe you should take a nap? The grass is very comfortable."

"Idiot," he chastised. "Not everyone is a duck like you."

She turned red. "Well, excuse me for trying to help!" she huffed, and stormed off. He stood to go in the other direction, and paused to look back down at the ground. It did look very comfortable... He hurried off before he could pursue that line of thought any further.

* * *

"This had better work," Ahiru muttered that night as they went beneath the fountain, gold twig firmly in her grip.

It did, down to the bottom of the tower and through the woods after the other girls. The instant they came out of the diamond wood, though, and in sight of the lake, Ahiru yawned and muttered something about being in a dream, and fell fast asleep again. Fakir just sighed and got into the boat with her, resigning himself to another sleepless night of watching her and the other girls dance with the shard of Mytho's heart.

* * *

She woke from her mid-afternoon nap the next day and, looking at Fakir, immediately sat up and cried loudly, "I'm SORRY!"

People were staring at the two of them.

Fakir gave them all his best glare until they decided they all had business elsewhere.

"Here." He handed her the branch he'd taken from the last wood. "If this doesn't work, I don't know what will."

She looked at it. "Fakir, how did you break diamond?"

He sighed, taking it back. "The branch isn't diamond, it's soft gold," he answered, turning it upside down to show her. "The leaves are coated with diamonds, that's all. Like dewdrops." He handed it back.

"Oh," she said, examining it. "I really will try to stay awake tonight, Fakir."

"You'd better," he said. "I'm running out of ideas."

* * *

"I won't fall asleep, I won't fall asleep, I definitely won't fall asleep," Ahiru chanted to herself as they followed the other girls down the staircase, and through the silver wood and the gold wood and the diamond wood. She boarded the boat he steered her to and kept repeating the vow to herself as they crossed the lake, staring determinedly at the diamond-sprigged branch in her hand.

"Ahiru. Ahiru!" He had to shake her shoulder to get her attention. "We're here."

She looked up at Fakir, and her eyes widened as she saw the castle beyond for the first time. "Fakir, it worked!"

"We'll see," he said skeptically, helping her out of the boat.

As they neared the ballroom, Ahiru's pendant began to glow. "Fakir!" she cried happily, and transformed into Princess Tutu.

* * *

Entering the ballroom, Tutu saw the eleven girls of the beginners ballet class dancing with eleven heart shards.

"Eleven?" she asked, surprised.

"They were twelve before," Fakir said from beside her. "I think they're only one, but multiplied to dance with each."

That made sense somehow. And each of the girls was dancing more beautifully with her partner than they'd ever danced before. Tutu smiled, and raised her hands, tumbling them over her head. "Won't you dance with me?" she invited softly, and danced with each of her classmates.

"Isn't it better," she asked them, "to dance as you yourself have learned? To dance freely? To dance your own dance, as well as with a partner?" And with each, the shard of a heart fled, collecting into one, in the center of the room.

"Won't you come back with me?" she asked the heart shard. "To where you can dance your own dance?"

"Yes," Mytho's heart replied, and streamed into her hands, smiling. "I am Joy," it whispered.

Around them, the castle shook. Fakir and Tutu looked up, almost as one. "It's collapsing!" he shouted. "Run!"

Tutu ran, and the girls after her, and they all boarded the boats, fleeing back to the shore of the diamond wood. Tutu held the precious shard of Mytho's heart in her hands as she and Fakir looked back at the destruction of the fairy castle. It crumbled in on itself and disappeared in a cloud of its own dust. "It was so beautiful," she mourned.

"It wasn't real," he replied, eyes on the destruction and fading light. "It was only a dream."

They left the boats at the diamond wood and walked back through the golden wood and the silver wood, mist rising up behind them all the while, obscuring the boats and the lake and the trees. Tutu had the feeling they, like the castle, were disappearing into nothingness. They followed the other girls up the stairs and emerged to the sound of the bells chiming six. The girls silently returned to their dorm as the entrance beneath the fountain closed itself.

There was a rumbling, and the ground shook.

As one, Fakir and Tutu looked back at the fountain. "Do you think it's all gone now?" she asked.

"Yeah," he agreed. He caught her eyes. "Maybe it's better that way," he suggested.

Tutu considered it, and nodded.

"Princess Tutu," Mytho said, standing just outside the door of the boy's dormitory, dressed only in his white nightshirt.

"My Prince," she replied with a curtsy, and walked over to him. "I've brought you a shard of your heart."

"Thank you," he replied, and she pressed it gently to his breast, where it entered, returning to him. Mytho gave a soft strangled sound as joy returned to him, and looked into her eyes again. There was something bright and shining in his own now, and his smile was warm. "Thank you, Princess Tutu," he replied, bowing.

She curtsied again, feeling a small thrill that she'd been able to help make him happy. "Good night, my Prince," she replied, and left.

Around the side of the girls' dorm building she transformed back into plain Ahiru and peeked around the corner to see Fakir holding the door open for Mytho as he went back inside. Fakir paused, though, and looked back to see her. With a tired smile, he nodded and went inside himself.

* * *

Ahiru awoke barely an hour after she'd gone to bed, bursting with enthusiasm and energy. They'd gotten back another shard of Mytho's heart! She and the other girls weren't going to be dancing all night anymore! Life was good! She opened her window and was mobbed by her usual flock of birds. Laughing, she fed them, eyes contentedly on the three small branches in a vase on her dresser.

* * *

That afternoon, humming happily after getting through a day of dance class _without_ a threat of marriage from Neko-sensei, Ahiru strode toward her usual spot on the lawn. She stopped, though, when she saw that someone else was already there. After a second of consideration, she sat down next to him. It was just for a little while, she told herself. Just to keep him company. She studied him. He was much more relaxed when he was asleep, she decided.

One hand draped on the book of fairy tales that lay open on his chest, Fakir napped peacefully in the sun.

* * *

**Author's Schism**

_I wrote this for the Fairytale challenge on the Princess Tutu Live Journal Fanfic Community and ended up rather pleased with how it turned out. I actually wrote it all in one sitting, which is a bit unusual for me. As a missing "act" of the story, it's set between Chapter of the Egg and Chapter of the Chick. I hope you enjoyed the story._


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